Women's Boat Race

For the Men's Boat Race, see The Boat Race.
The Women's Boat Race
The Cancer Research UK Women's Boat Race
Contested by
CUWBC OUWBC
First boat race 15 March 1927[1]
First side-by-side race 1936[2]
Current champion Oxford
Current course The Championship Course
River Thames, London (2015 onwards)[3]
Course length 4.2 miles (6.8 km)[3]
Sponsor Newton Investment Management (since 2011)[4][5]
Official charity Cancer Research UK[5]
Previous courses Henley (1977 to 2014 except 2013 on Dorney Lake);[6][7]
The Isis, Oxford and River Cam, Cambridge (1927 to 1976 with several gaps);[8]
River Thames, London (1929, 1935)[8][9][10]
Trophy The Women's Boat Race Trophy[11]
Number of wins[12]
Cambridge Oxford
41 30
Official website
theboatraces.org

The Women's Boat Race is an annual rowing race between Cambridge University Women's Boat Club and Oxford University Women's Boat Club. It is also known as the Cancer Research UK Women's Boat Race, its sponsor, Newton Investment Management, having donated the title to the charity.[13] The race is rowed in eights. First rowed in 1927,[14] the race has taken place annually since 1964. Since the 2015 race it has been rowed on the same day as the men's Boat Race on the River Thames in London, taking place around Easter.

The course covers a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) stretch of the Thames in West London, from Putney to Mortlake. Members of both crews are traditionally known as blues and each boat as a "Blue Boat", with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue. As of 2016 Cambridge have won the race 41 times and Oxford 30 times. Cambridge has led Oxford in cumulative wins since 1966. The women's race has received television coverage and grown in popularity since 2015, attracting a television audience of 4.8 million viewers that year.[15][16][17] The 2016 race was won by Oxford while the Cambridge boat nearly sank in the rough conditions.[18][19][20]

History

The first women's rowing event between Oxford and Cambridge was held on 15 March 1927 on The Isis in Oxford.[1] This was not solely a race in the years up to 1935, the two boats were not on the river together and were judged on both their speed and their "steadiness, finish, rhythm and other matters of style". The Times reported that "large and hostile crowds gathered on the towpath" and The New York Times stated "a crowd of fully five thousand persons was on hand as a willing cheering section".[8][21] The race covered a distance of approximately 0.5 miles (0.80 km) over which the crews were judged on their style while rowing downstream and their speed while rowing back upstream.[22] Reports differ as to the judges' opinions on style: one suggests they failed to agree on a winner,[22] another indicates that they deemed the style of each crew to be equal.[23] As a result, the judges based their decision on speed:[22] the race was won by Oxford in a time of 3 minutes 36 seconds, beating Cambridge by 15 seconds.[1]

The next event in 1929 took place on the Tideway in London.[9] At the 1935 race, after two intervening events, the crews took to the river together for the first time. Racing on the Thames in London Oxford's boat was sent off first with the Cambridge boat following thirty seconds later.[10] The 1936 race, held on The Isis, was the first to take place side by side.[2] Later, the location alternated between the River Cam in Cambridge and The Isis, over a distance of about 1,000 yards.[8][24][25] Unlike the men’s race, the women's continued in most years through the Second World War.

The Cambridge University Women's Boat Club was founded in 1941 when Girton College became the second women's college to cater for rowing. Until that year Cambridge was represented by Newnham College Boat Club. The first blues were awarded in 1941 when CUWBC raced against Oxford University Women's Boat Club, which had been founded in 1926.[26][27] All of the Cambridge rowers in 1941 were members of Newnham College. The following year the first non-Newnham rower competed.[9][28]

In training after the 1952 race, Oxford rowed over a weir and was banned from the river.[29] Both OUWBC and later CUWBC suffered from lack of funds and the race fell into abeyance. After a 12-year gap, the race restarted in 1964 and has been held annually since. The number of women rowers increased as more colleges started to admit women and reserve boats from each university began racing in 1966, the year after the men's reserve boats began racing. The women's reserve boats were later named Osiris (Oxford) and Blondie (Cambridge). In 1975 the men's lightweight race started at Henley-on-Thames and the women's Boat race was relocated there in 1977 creating the Henley Boat Races.[8][26] At Henley the race took place over a distance of 2,000 metres.[30]

Oxford Women's Blue Boat at The Championship Course finish in 2015

The First VIII receive university blues, and is therefore more commonly known as the Blue Boat. The Second VIII receives university colours.[31] The 2011 race was the first to be sponsored by Newton Investment Management, a subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon. Previously the crews had no sponsorship and were self funded. Newton have remained the sponsor since then and increased the amount of funding significantly.[4][17]

For the 2013 race the entire Henley Boat Races was moved to Dorney Lake because of flooding on the river.[32][33] Oxford won the 2014 race on the Henley course having beaten Cambridge by a distance of four boat lengths over two kilometres.[34] A newly designed trophy, to replace the existing wooden shield,[35] was awarded to the Oxford president by Olympic gold medallist Sophie Hosking who had won the Women's lightweight double sculls at the 2012 Summer Olympics.[11][36]

The Boat Races

On 11 April 2015 the 70th women's race was held on The Championship Course on the same day as the traditional male event for the first time.[37][38] Rebranded as "The Boat Races", the combined event was broadcast on national television in UK, during which the audience for the women's race reached 4.8 million viewers.[15][39][40] OUWBC won by six and half lengths that year.[41] The Reserves race also moved to the Championship Course in 2015, running on the day prior to the main race. In 2016 all four men's and women's boat races took place on the same day and course for the first time. The 2016 race, again receiving national television coverage, was won by Oxford while the Cambridge boat nearly sank in the rough conditions.[18][19][20]

The race has been won 41 times by Cambridge and 30 times by Oxford, with Cambridge leading Oxford in cumulative wins since 1966. The reserves race has been won 24 times by Cambridge and 20 times by Oxford, with Cambridge leading in cumulative wins since the inception of the race.[12] The 2017 race will take place on Sunday 2 April at 4:35 p.m. British Summer Time, an hour before the men's race.[42]

Results

Henley Boat Races 2009: Oxford Women (dark blue) lead Cambridge Women
The Newton Women’s Boat Race 2015: Reserve Race – Osiris

Women's Boat Race

Cumulative wins by Oxford and Cambridge men's and women's blue and reserve boats (in the SVG file, hover over a graph to highlight it)

Notes

dagger – The events until 1935 were not run solely as races, but were also judged on style merit marks. The crews were not allowed to be on the river at the same time so each eight rowed separately downstream and were judged on style. They then rowed back upstream to record a time.[2]
double-dagger – The course was shortened in 2007 due to rough water during the Henley Boat Races. It was reduced from 2000 metres to less than 1500 metres with the start between the Upper Thames Rowing Club and Old Blades.[7]

Women's Reserves (Osiris vs Blondie)

Sources:[12][27][43]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Boat Race Practice – An Oxford victory". The Times. 16 March 1927. p. 7.
  2. 1 2 3 "First ever women's event from 88 years ago was rather different to modern day". The Telegraph. 10 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  3. 1 2 "The Course". The Boat Race Company Limited. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  4. 1 2 Morrissey, Helena (4 April 2015). "Helena Morrissey: 'Tide turns in favour of boat race women'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Partners". The Boat Races. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "History". Henley Boat Races. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Henley Boat Races 2007". CUWBC. 2 April 2007. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Pulling Together". Cambridge Alumni Magazine (74 Lent 2015): 12. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 "A brief history of the Oxford-Cambridge Varsity event – from the perspective of women". The Telegraph. 13 March 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  10. 1 2 "University women's race women's success". The Times. 18 March 1935. p. 6.
  11. 1 2 Mahoney, Lizzie (19 February 2014). "New Women's Boat Race trophy unveiled". The Cambridge Student. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 "Boat Race – Results – Women". The Boat Race Company Limited. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "The Boat Races sponsors BNY Mellon & Newton pull together for Cancer Research UK". The Boat Race Company Limited. 19 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  14. ↑ "Boat Race – About the Race". The Boat Race Company Limited. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  15. 1 2 "Boat race viewing figures delight BBC as 4.8m watch women's event". The Guardian. 12 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  16. ↑ "Women's Boat Race 2015: equality will be true winner of historic meeting". The Guardian. 10 April 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  17. 1 2 "The real reason the women's Boat Race is closing in? Deep pockets". The Telegraph. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  18. 1 2 "Boat Race: Cambridge triumph after Oxford's women win". BBC Sport. 27 March 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  19. 1 2 "Oxford win Women's Boat Race as Cambridge struggle with sinking boat". The Guardian. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  20. 1 2 "The Boat Race 2016: Cambridge win the Boat Race against Oxford but their women's boat nearly sinks". The Telegraph. 27 March 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  21. ↑ "Origins - The Women's Boat Race: The Early years". The Boat Race Company Limited. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  22. 1 2 3 "Women's Boat Race – Confetti, Streamers, and Toy Trumpets". Western Daily Press. 16 March 1927. p. 5.(subscription required)
  23. ↑ "Women's Boat Race at Oxford – a novel competition". Cheltenham Chronicle. 19 March 1927. p. 11.(subscription required)
  24. ↑ Howard, Philip (13 March 1973). "Nine girls in a boat beat Oxford". The Times. p. 4.
  25. ↑ Railton, Jim (15 March 1974). "Most exciting Boat Race for a decade". The Times. p. 13.
  26. 1 2 "Race History". Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  27. 1 2 "Results". Henley Boat Races. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  28. ↑ "Crew Lists 1940s". Cambridge University Women's Boat Club 1941 - 2014. 7 February 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  29. ↑ "Over The Years - Early Troubles for the Women". The Boat Race Company Limited. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  30. ↑ "About Henley Boat Races". Henley Boat Races. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  31. ↑ "About the Club". Cambridge University Women's Boat Club. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  32. ↑ "History". Oxford University Women's Boat Club. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  33. ↑ "Clean sweep for Oxford over Cambridge at Henley Boat Races at Dorney Lake". The Telegraph. 24 March 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  34. ↑ "Women's Boat Race: Oxford beat Cambridge by four lengths". BBC Sport. 30 March 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  35. ↑ Rock, Lucy (30 March 2014). "Women rowers catch up with men at the Boat Race". The Observer. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  36. ↑ "Sophie Hosking, Bio, Stats and Results". Sports Reference. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  37. ↑ "Women's Sport Pioneers: The Women's Boat Race". BBC Sport. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  38. ↑ "Oxford, Cambridge & the fight for equality". BBC Sport. 9 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  39. ↑ "Boat Races 2015: Oxford v Cambridge: as it happened". The Telegraph. 11 April 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  40. ↑ "The Boat Races 2015". BBC Sport. 11 April 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  41. ↑ "Boat Races 2015: Oxford women and men beat Cambridge". BBC Sport. 11 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  42. ↑ "The 2017 Cancer Research UK Boat Races Presidents are elected". The Boat Race Company Limited. 27 June 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  43. ↑ Kingsbury, Jane; Williams, Carol (2015). Cambridge University Women's Boat Club 1941-2014 - The Struggle Against Inequality. Trireme. ISBN 9780993098291.
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